Ham radio enthusiasts compete in international event

Sunday

Jul 13, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Lynne Klaft CORRESPONDENT

DEVENS — The radio airwaves in Central Massachusetts came alive as thousands of messages were sent out by amateur radio operators, and thousands more were received from around the world during the weeklong World Radiosport Team Championship 2014 that concludes competition today.

The championship is held every four years, with Massachusetts picked this year to host 59 teams from 32 countries competing in what is known as the Olympics of radiosport competition. Past hosts have included Finland (2002), Brazil (2006) and Russia (2010).

The goal for each two-person team is to contact as many other operators around the world in a 24-hour period as they can. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 ham radio operators on every continent who are aware of the championship, and who will respond when they hear the special call numbers transmitted by the contestants.

Organizers of this year's competition picked 65 sites in 17 towns to locate each of the two-person teams. Each team was in the field with identical 40-foot antennas, a tent and generator.

Operators bring their own radios, computers, equipment and individual operating styles and skills, and in some cases, their own chairs and cushions to be able to stay focused for the 24-hour contest period. One team member communicates by voice, the other taps out Morse code messages.

Ten sites were located at Devens, seven in Pepperell, and two in Leominster. Other towns included Assonet, Berkley, Carver, Cohasset, Dighton, Hingham, Medfield, Norwell and Hollis, N.H.

Each team is overseen by a referee who watches and listens to all of the contacts that the team makes and records on their logs.

One of the U.S. teams — John Crovelli of Flemington, New Jersey, and George DeMontrond of Houston, Texas — was located at Devens with referee Igor Syerikov of Zaporozhye, Ukraine.

An hour into the contest Saturday morning, one team already had logged in 283 contacts. Mr. Crovelli and Mr. DeMontrond's scores weren't readily available, but during that first hour a bell rang signifying that they had made contact with a new country — Japan.

Mr. Syerikov is the chief of the radiosport committee in Ukraine and said he flew in with two teams from his country. He has been a ham radio operator since 1978, with more than 36 years of experience and has a business supplying and servicing radio communications equipment back home.

Each of the sites has a support crew; volunteers from as far away as Wyoming, such as Walt Marshall.

"There's nothing like putting a call sign (an operator's "name") with a face and getting to shake their hand. When you go to events like this, that's what you hear all the time, 'I know you!,' " said Mr. Marshall, who has been a ham radio operator for nearly six decades. "It's a passion. I get up in the morning, check my email and turn on my radio to see what's going on."

Ham radio operators come from all walks of life. Mr. DeMontrond is president of the DeMontrond Auto Group, Mr. Crovelli is a self-employed amateur radio station designer and Mr. Marshall is a retired engineer. A peek at the contestant bios shows that there are dentists, truck drivers, bankers, computer maintenance and support, musicians, travel agents, supermarket store managers, software designers, firefighters, doctors and every imaginable kind of engineer.

"These guys are the best of the best," said Marty Durham of Florida, who drove up to Massachusetts to volunteer on the Devens support crew. He said he even met his wife Sherry, who is from Virginia, when he lived in New Hampshire many years ago through the ham radio business.

Gerry Kersus of Holden came to visit the Devens site.

"I have met people from Europe that I talked to thousands of times before. I got my license in high school, had help from my physics teacher who helped me learn Morse code," said Mr. Kersus, a retired electronics engineer, who has 49 years of experience, and is also a volunteer examiner who oversees the licensing process of ham radio operators. "I was always interested in the electronics side, but as you can see I like talking to people, meeting new people."

A team from Nicosia, Cyprus, led by Stavros Tsiakouris, an electronics engineer, and Marios Nicolaou, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, along with referee Edward Kulchenko of Georgetown, Ontario, were sited in a small field overseen by support crew manager Robert Peloquin of Worcester.

"This is a fascinating sport. I picked it up in high school. We had our own society run by students who passed on their knowledge to younger students," said Dr. Nicolaou. "I have been doing this for 27 years, for fun, for the challenge to build, and a competitive spirit."

His partner, Mr. Tsiakouris, was one of the younger students that the doctor mentored.

"He knows a lot about computers, he writes software. He is unique. It lets you look at things in a different way," said Dr. Nicolaou.

Mr. Peloquin, a computer engineer, has only been a licensed ham operator for five years, and he volunteered so he could watch, "the best in the world, the elite. I am watching and learning from these guys."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.